I applaud the Federal Election Commission's unanimous decision to begin
to consider my request that they act to ban soft money in federal
elections. This is an important step in our effort to reform our
elections and restore the trust of the American people in their
political system.

As I said in my petition to the FEC, the rules governing our system of
financing federal election campaigns are sorely out of date. The system
has been overwhelmed by a tide of money, raised in amounts and in ways
that could not have been contemplated when the system was created two
decades ago. I believe that the FEC has the authority and the
obligation to take dramatic action, and I am pleased that five
congressional sponsors of bipartisan campaign finance reform, led by
Congressmen Shays and Meehan, have filed a similar petition before the
commission.

I urge the FEC to take the next step and begin the process of writing
new rules that will ban soft money. I hope this action will encourage
Congress to enact comprehensive, bipartisan campaign finance reform.